Thursday, September 29, 2016

Chasing Liquid

Suppose you were a little cat
residing in a person’s flat
not yielding to the yellow jackets
floating in the bowl of effervescent
grapefruit water.

The jackets don’t flinch
          when you pierce through their veil
with your barbed tongue
          and let the bubbles cascade down
          your throat.


Suppose your masters were dining out
          at a closed down Italian restaurant;
you knew about the fire there in ‘85
          that killed them
and six others.

The bread on the table softening over years,
          yellow jackets making homes
in her bare knees;
they have all the utensils now
           with which to eat their silver soup.


Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Fate September

When the wind leaves
to blow the cold
off of the leaves

maybe black branches
may hold enough blood
to survive you to spring.

Don’t cry northward
but keep going;
don’t cry at all

but keep singing
until the orange sky
goes midnight blue –

when the clouds breathe
to blow your cold
frame closer to me.

Monday, September 19, 2016

Pollock Orders Cod

I wanted a chalk outline on the ground when I
woke up to rain falling like a surgeon out on the
veranda. There was no outline but the surgeon
left the chalk for me to draw my own. I broke
the chalk but eventually outlined a new veranda
one that the rain could melt into a milky pool of
dirt and wind. I went back inside covered in rain
and chalk and drank more water. I didn’t talk to
the sun on Fire Island like O’hara did in 1958; the sun simply wasn’t out but neither were the stars.Why is art so depressing? I remember you asking the night I slept in my car beneath the neon tanning salon sign. I didn’t answer you because I was drunk and fell asleep for three years, but I’ll call you soon.
It’s 5:45 a.m.

Monday, September 5, 2016

A Poe Soul in the Storm

I thought scallops
had no eyes

and I was wrong
60 times.

We brought them back
frozen from the store
to our trailer.

I was free of childhood here
but the sewage smell
creeping in through
the floor vents once a week

while we slept
made me depressed.

The cat that bore
six kittens
(one of which she intentionally smothered)
on the carpet –
and forced us to rent
the carpet cleaner –

hated me.

So all the days
while you were at work
I lied in bed
like a person unemployed

because I was

and drank Rolling Rock
until I passed out

sleeping you closer to me.

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Ribular Vertilizing Points

In August 2013
I spent a lot of money
but more time was spent

blowing my brains out
with my finger in the shape
of a loaded gun

the blood in copious volumes
on the carpet just outside
your bedroom nowhere

You didn’t hear any gunshots
just the sound of dropped
live microphones on shadows


I dreamt I clawed through a redlight
in slow motion
and the word meterer I kept

tripping over the ers
and thinking of the stick people
the people with stick limbs

and sad faces nowhere
now here.